Puppy Jump Bumps Straight Grids

Jump Bumps are not real jumps. They are designed to help puppies with
their pre foundation jumping so that they learn balance and coordination.
They also learn to use a good stride pattern and how to tackle bends and
obstacles safely under different conditions.

I'm basing Jilly's jump training on Susan Salo's methods. Of course
Jilly is too young for jumping. A dog should be well grown and over a
year old before the real jump training begins and even then it will be in
short sessions designed for a young dog.

Jump bumps are made from pieces of half round guttering placed on the
ground so that they don't tend to move if the puppy knocks them. In
the photo you can see four jump bumps or stride regulators as they are
sometimes called. Two of the bumps are ordinary pieces of four inch
guttering and two are a bit bigger. It's important that the puppy
learns that not all jumps are the same. The bigger bumps have wings
either side of them and the smaller ones don't. The small ones are
there to help with the stride pattern.

Susan Salo uses eight inch pipe cut in half for the bigger bumps but this
is an expensive option. I happened to have some old square, two inch
downpipe which I taped together. I taped a piece of guttering on top
and this forms the bigger bump. You can get deep flow guttering if you
want to spend a fortune but really it's not worth it.

To start with we just used two of the bump jumps set out as below.
There is about 5 feet between the small bump jump and the big one. I
soon found that I hadn't done enough training for the wait when we started
and so this turned out to be quite a short session. A couple of things
to note. You need to use a target to for the dog to focus on and the
dog should be released when it's focused on the food target or a toy and not
the handler. The handler faces forward rather than facing the puppy so
that the puppy learns to come in to the handler's side and hit the target
rather than always coming to the front of the handler. This sort of
exercise should be repeated three times and then left for a week or two.
Jilly's wait really isn't solid enough and so we cut our session short.
We'll go back to it when the wait has improved.

A couple of weeks later and we get on to the real stuff.
Here's our grid. The wait needed some reinforcing before we did the
grid properly but Jilly does understand that she doesn't get the toy unless
she waits at the start. It was a bit exciting for her as it was a new
toy she'd never seen before. It's important to play with a dog and to
make it lots of fun.

At nine months Jilly has enough skill and co-ordination to jump her first
pole. This exercise will help her when she begins to do some
foundation jumping grids at around 12 to 13 months old.

At Jilly's age you wouldn't want to start a dog jumping too high or jumping
repeatedly and so the pole is kept low. It's intended to help her pace
herself and to jump a pole correctly so that when she starts her jump
training she'll go into it naturally and safely.

If you have a puppy and you want to start training over a pole I would
strongly suggest that you go through the jump bump exercises first and don't
start until your puppy has learned to have plenty of balance and co-ordination.

This is the first time Jilly has seen a jump with a pole. I'm using a
stick in the ground jump that's placed behind the larger jump bump.
Keeping the jump bump in front allows the puppy to develop a safer style of
jumping before they start on jump grids. The first pole is set at 15cm
which is about 6". Jilly will measure into the large category for
agility and as she is half springer her breeding is such that she jumps
through undergrowth when out on walks and will even do the odd jump when
there's nothing there. The 6" pole is very easy for her and she makes
nothing of it.

In the Susan Salo course the pole goes up in 2" increments to a height of
10" and then back down to 6". The reason for going back down again is
to make sure that the dog finishes on something very easy with no pressure.
I didn't have a jump with enough cups on it and there wouldn't have been
room with the type of cups that I use. Jilly is very fit and capable and so
our pole went from 6" to 10" and then back down to 6", and that was it.

We won't repeat this exercise for three or four weeks. As you can see
in the video Jilly found the 6" pole very easy but I felt she jumped too
high over the 10" pole. Next time I'll make sure I have a jump that
goes up in 2" increments. (Yes I know, some people say I fuss too
much). It means I'll need to make a new stick in the ground jump and
buy some moveable jump cups but I think this is a safer way to teach a young
dog. Watch this space for instructions!